Different Types of Roof Design and Construction

At one time or the other, you might be required to repair or replace your roof. So, it is important to ensure that you know what is involved in the process and how much it will cost you. To help you in the process, this article offers a quick guide to the basics of roof design and construction, starting with the key differences between the main types of roofing.

There are two basic types: pitched and flat roofs.

Flat roofs

A flat roof is a roof that is defined as having a pitch that is less than 15 degrees horizontally. A good flat roof should not allow water to collect, but instead drain away safely. This means that most of these roofs have a fall on them, making rain water flow naturally to collection points. You can also have a cosmetic covering of tiled roofs of 10-15 degrees if the underlying roof itself is too flat. Flat roofs are not always as attractive looking and problems with these methods to deal with rainfall are common, but when done properly they can look stunning on certain types of home design.

Pitched roofs

A sloping or pitched roof has a pitch of no less than 15 degrees, but in most cases much more. An actual typical roof pitch on a traditional house will be approximately 40-50 degrees, but at maximum can go up to around 70 degrees. Different period homes will normally have different pitches, some of which are more elegant on a particular building design. In addition to visual appearance, the selection of the roof pitch is also determined by the materials used and the resulting overlap that is needed if roof tiles are used. For instance, thatched roofs have 45 degrees or more while a slate tile roof can be a bit flatter, at about a 35 degree pitch if desired. If you live in areas that experience high snowfall, then the roof pitch can be greater, so that the snow can fall off the roof instead of settling and building up on the roof.

Those roofs with pitches of ten to twenty degrees are referred as low pitched roofs. Careful considerations should be made with these designs, especially on the overlap between the tiles to prevent blowing of water into the roof by the wind.

If you are looking at designing a home from scratch or trying to understand how to take on a large renovation project involving your existing room, you need to understand the pitch of your roof before committing to a particular strategy. The rest of our blog should help guide you through the rest of the necessary steps to complete your work to a high standard.

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Welcome to Stoak Construction! UK property developers Bran & Amy Grayson created this site to help average folks save money in property maintenance & renovation. They use their expertise to help people save thousands of pounds while building their perfect home! :)